Research Administration

UTMB's Animal Resources Center, which encompasses more than 125,000 square feet in 9 facilities, is responsible for provision of care to all vertebrate animals on campus. The ARC provides a comprehensive program of veterinary care, animal husbandry, technical advice and assistance and facilities to advance research involving animals on the UTMB campus. The ARC is fully AAALAC  International accredited, PHS assured and USDA approved. Housing and care is provided for all common research species from amphibians and rodents to primates, sheep and swine. Biocontainment housing is available up to animal biosafety level 4 (ABSL 4).

UTMB operates to comply with the USDA Animal Welfare Act (Public Law 89-544) as amended by PL91-579 (1970), PL94-279 (1976), and 45 CFR37618 (6-30-80); Health Research Extension Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-158); follows the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (revised September 1986); and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals DHEW (NIH) 85-23 revised 1985. UTMB is a registered Research Facility under the Animal Welfare Act. It has a current assurance on file with the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), in compliance with NIH Policy. The ARC follows all standards for AAALAC and institutional IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) compliance, and provides animal care and holding space to support a wide range of animal models, surgery, and research. 

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) is among the eight academic institutions and five health institutions of The University of Texas System (UT System). The system enrolls more than 236,000 students; 58.7% minority, employs over 100,000 persons and has an annual operating budget of more than $16.9 billion. The UT System is governed by the Board of Regents, comprising nine members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. The regents select the chancellor (currently, James Milliken) as the chief executive officer of the system, who reports directly to the regents and is responsible for executing the policies and procedures of the board. The board, upon the recommendation of the chancellor, elects or appoints all the officers, faculty members, and other employees of the system. The regents rules detail the composition and responsibilities of several advisory councils established to facilitate system-wide coordination.

 The UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH (UTMB), the second oldest medical school west of the Mississippi, is one of the eight academic institutions and five health institutions of The University of Texas System (UT System). UTMB is a formal member of the Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical complex, and is actively engaged in regional partnerships.

It is home to the only national laboratory in Texas, and one of only two in the nation dedicated to combatting infectious threats to health.

Established in 1891, UTMB has grown from one building, 23 students and 13 faculty members to a modern academic health science center with campuses in Galveston, League City, Angleton and Webster, Texas. Today, the more than 900 faculty members teach some 3,400 students, contributing to UTMB’s distinction of educating more health care professionals than any other institution in Texas.

The more than 3,200 students are enrolled in four post-graduate professional schools (Medicine, Health Professions, Graduate, Nursing). A fifth school (Public Health) is under development. In addition to the schools, UTMB is home to four institutes for advanced study (Translational Sciences, Human Infections, Vaccine Sciences and Immunity, and Medical Humanities), a network of hospitals and clinics that provide a full range of primary and specialized medical care, and numerous research and teaching facilities. These facilities help UTMB achieve its mission, “to improve health for the people of Texas and around the world.”

UTMB places major emphasis on basic and clinical research, providing more than 1.15 million square feet of space specifically designed for research. UTMB has invested considerable resources to develop areas of research strength across the campus and to establish the infrastructure necessary to facilitate basic, clinical, and translational research in the 21st century.

UTMB is unique among the Texas health science centers in that it operates its academic and patient care programs and facilities (and the only state-funded general-purpose hospital and clinics) under a single administrative structure led by a university president. Hospital and research operations fall under the president of the university, facilitating the integration of UTMB’s education, research, and patient care programs, and providing a strong synergistic environment for clinical research and education. Reporting to President Jochen Reiser, MD, PhD, is the Executive Vice President, Provost, and Dean, School of Medicine Dr. Charles P. Mouton, MD, MS, MBA.

The provost is UTMB’s chief academic officer and is responsible for developing and enacting education, research, and clinical faculty priorities. The provost oversees UTMB’s four schools – the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Health Professions that collectively have more than 3,000 students. UTMB’s provost also has oversight over UTMB’s faculty and manages the research enterprise that includes the Galveston National Laboratory. Before joining UTMB in 2017, Mouton held several leadership and faculty roles at Nashville’s Meharry Medical College, including senior vice president for health affairs and dean of medicine from 2010 to 2014. He earned his medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine, a Master of Science in clinical epidemiology from Harvard University School of Public Health and a Master of Business Administration from Tennessee Technological University.

In its commitment to basic, clinical, and translational research, UTMB houses one of the largest research libraries in the southwest, with 596 research awards in FY2022. Total grant funding for FY2022 was $236 million, an increase of $74 million from the previous fiscal year. UTMB funds additional research-related projects yearly from the John Sealy Memorial Endowment Fund (corpus $97 million), which supports general biomedical research projects and programs; the McLaughlin Fellowship Fund (corpus $18 million), which supports training fellowships in infectious diseases and immunology; the Blocker Fund, which supports students in the M.D./Ph.D. Program; and the Herzog Foundation Endowment, which supports students in the Clinical Science Program and M.D./Ph.D. students interested in translational research. UTMB has 17 federally funded and two local endowment-funded research training grants. UTMB has over 1M square feet of space designated for research. These facilities include the eleven-story, state-of-the-art Blocker Medical Research Building, which houses many specially designed core resource laboratories. In addition to its institutes, UTMB supports multidisciplinary centers; thus, the very atmosphere of the university is permeated with collaborative activities capable of attacking problems with a breadth and depth of approach not readily accessible in many other U.S. institutions.

The UTMB Center for Addiction Research (CAR) is an institutional center of excellence that provides the infrastructure for research, education, and outreach in addiction and related disorders. The CAR includes more than 100 faculty, mentees, and healthcare staff from the UTMB Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions. The center strives to improve the course of chronic health disorders through new understanding of biological mechanisms and translation of discoveries into molecular therapeutics to improve the well-being of our community, state and world. Its vision is to  define the future of molecular therapeutics for addictions, obesity and related chronic CNS disorders.  The CAR has built strengths in target-based discovery, disease-specific knowledge and specialized core technologies to amplify these efforts, and draws from the rich UTMB resources in structural biology, biochemistry, neuroscience and pharmacology. A key goal is to enhance and embed translational, molecular therapeutics efforts in departments and centers across campus through the leveraging of resources already in place at UTMB. In this light, the CAR has partnerships with the scientists, centers and departments centrally engaged in the translational research areas of interest at UTMB and we continue to build bridges for new translational research initiatives.

The Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (CBEID) supports the mission of the Institute  for Human Infections and Immunity (IHII) by coordinating research activities involving infectious agents, particularly emerging infectious diseases and agents of bioterrorism. The CBEID has two main objectives: To reduce the vulnerability of the US and other nations to the use of biological weapons for warfare and terrorism; and to alleviate suffering from emerging and tropical infectious diseases through application of basic, translational, and field research, and through education. The Center has attracted an exceptionally talented and multidisciplinary team of research scientists with broad expertise in many biodefense and emerging infectious disease agents. Research programs have been developed in all major areas targeted by the NIAID in its biodefense program, including the basic biology of bacterial and viral biological warfare and terrorist pathogens, as well as emerging diseases. Immunology and host response to infection, with emphasis on pathogenesis, vaccine development, antimicrobial drug development, and diagnostics have also been pursued.

The Comparative Effectives Research on Cancer in Texas works to find evidence that will help patients and their physicians make individualized decisions about the best cancer care options, including screening, treatment, and end of life care in cancer, and ultimately shape health policy related to that. The CCECO uses a variety of population-based and local data sources to conduct timely and relevant comparative effectiveness research on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other disease processes. The center assists physicians, researchers and other health care providers in conducting related research. It helps to train and develop clinical researchers, and contributes to the body of evidence on the benefits and harms of various cancer treatment stages, and helps guide decision-making for patients and health-care providers. 

The Center for Health Promotion, Performance, and Rehabilitation Research (CHPPRR) focuses on supporting and growing impactful research in the areas of health promotion, performance, and rehabilitation research. The Center is committed to creating relationships among basic, clinical, and translational scientists to apply research findings for the benefit of persons with disability health inequities, and chronic disease across the lifespan and their families, caregivers, and communities. The Center provides resources (space, technology, funding, & scientific expertise) and mentoring for faculty, trainees, and collaborators. During the fiscal year 2021, CHPPRR faculty were PI/Site PI on 52 externally funded research and training grants totaling more than $12 million and were author/co-author on over 125 scientific peer-reviewed publications.

The Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women’s Health (CIRWH) promotes, stimulates and supports interdisciplinary research related to the health of women. This center designs and seeks funding for collaborative research; partners with existing programs to encourage investigations of sex/gender differences in health and disease; and provides structured mentoring to motivated junior investigators committed to women's health. CIRWH has  more than 75 affiliated faculty and investigators from throughout the institution and interfaces with other centers. 

The Center for Violence Prevention focuses on improving the health and well-being of individuals, couples, families, communities, and societies through the prevention of violence. The center accomplishes this by collaborating with academic, public, and governmental partners to develop and implement evidence-informed screening, prevention, and intervention programs. With support from the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Justice, and multiple state and foundation awards, the Center conducts innovative research to prevent multiple forms of violence. It serves as a resource for research, training, and technical assistance for schools, communities, policy-makers, and the general public and supports researchers, advocates, practitioners, and policy-makers in violence prevention efforts, with faculty expertise in health policy research, behavioral health and research, and evaluation.

Created in 2000 with a $6.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) at UTMB is home to a diverse multidisciplinary team of investigators with complementary research interests. When created, it was the only Pepper Center serving the southwest at the time and has been continuously funded since its beginning, including the most recent funding renewal of $6.3 million in 2020 to identify pathways of physical function loss and gain, and develop targeted interventions to improve functional recovery from illness in older adults. Under the direction of Elena Volpi, MD, PhD, the center supports investigators, research, and expertise in gerontology to to improve physical function and independence in older adults. Promising treatments focus on nutrition, testosterone, and exercise, and the center’s research is expanding into the areas of novel therapeutics, Hispanic aging, and recovery from neurologic diseases. Center activities will take place through the Metabolism and Biology, Clinical Research, and Biostatistics, and Data Management Resource Cores.

The center's investigators have generated more than 700 scientific papers, and more than 5000 volunteers have participated in Pepper Center research involving muscle studies and clinical trials.

UTMB is a major academic research health system including four major campuses with a network of hospitals and clinics providing a full range of primary and specialized medical care. At the time of this submission, UTMB has 959 patient beds across 88 hospital and clinic locations.

Galveston

The academic and administrative center of UTMB is located at the 81-acre campus in Galveston. This includes over 1.8m gross square feet of patient care, 2.1M GSF of administrative space, 1M GSF Research and 1.1M GSF of academic space. While undergoing major renovations, The Galveston campus currently has 453 total Beds. UTMB’s major teaching hospital, the Jennie Sealy Hospital, is a new $438 million inpatient facility featuring 310 patient rooms, with 54 dedicated ICU beds, a 28-bed day surgery unit and 20 state-of-the-art operating suites.

Angleton-Danbury

In 2014 we acquired a 62-bed hospital in Angleton-Danbury. UTMB Health Angleton Danbury Campus is an acute care hospital serving the communities of Angleton, Danbury, Rosharon, and the surrounding areas. The first trauma-designated facility in Brazoria County, the facility and its care teams serve more than 60,000 lives from throughout southern Brazoria County. The Angleton Danbury Campus provides a variety of quality services including cardiac rehabilitation, cardiology, colorectal surgery, general surgery, neurodiagnostics, neurology, ediatric and adult primary care, plastic surgery, pulmonary and sleep medicine, pulmonary rehabilitation, diabetes care, surgical oncology, thoracic surgery, urology, vascular surgery, women’s healthcare as well as a 24 Hour emergency services, an ACR-accredited mammography program, cardiopulmonary clinical laboratory, diagnostic imaging services, and physical therapy. This campus houses 52 total beds, including 16 med-surge, 9 ICU, and 27 LDRP. In March of 2018 UTMB purchased 177 acres to expand the hospital campus.

League City

We constructed a 90-bed hospital in League City that became fully operational in 2018. The League City Campus offers advanced health care services to patients in a soothing, healing environment designed by patients, families, and staff. Architecture, decor, and design all reflect a healing environment and a hospital that cares for the patient’s mind, body and spirit. Each private, state-of-the-art patient room supports a team-based, patient- and family- centered approach to care. Our League City Campus delivers the finest inpatient and outpatient care for a variety of services - from top-notch orthopedic and rehabilitation specialists and advanced imaging and laboratory services. This campus also includes our partnership with MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Clear Lake

We have leased another 250-bed hospital in Clear Lake constructed in 2015 that we opened in March of 2019. We have also constructed multiple primary care and multispecialty clinics in the League City/Clear Lake area, both rapidly growing Houston suburbs. Our Clear Lake hospital includes 24/7 ER, imaging, medical/surgical suites, pediatrics, ICU, Ob/Gyn labor and delivery / post-partum and NICU, ORs, Endo, interventional radiology, and cardiology.

UTMB also has an extensive outreach network comprising more than 100 regional clinics in a > 250-mile radius catchment area throughout southeast Texas, serving an ethnically and economically diverse patient population. UTMB Health System is in an unprecedented period of renewal and growth, focused on the mainland communities between Galveston and Houston. These four campuses and over 100 clinics serve as the backbone for our clinical research environment. It provides CTSA research teams access to several million electronic health records, pediatric, geriatric and minority populations.

Telemedicine

To better serve Texans living in remote areas, The University of Texas System uses a network of technology to increase access to basic and specialized health care. Telemedicine uses specialized video conferencing to enable health care providers to assess and treat patients without being in the same room or even the same building or city. UT institutions already are leaders in this type of care delivery, especially UT Medical Branch in Galveston, which has been practicing telemedicine for more than 20 years, providing care remotely to Texas prison inmates, cruise ship passengers, researchers in Antarctica as well as patients in rural areas. UTMB averaged 158,438 telemedicine encounters in 2018.

UTMB has been providing telemedicine services for the United States Antarctic Program for more than a decade, including for the prior Antarctic contractor (RPSC). Under our agreement with Lockheed Martin, UTMB Health established a Center for Polar Medical Operations in Galveston to manage health services at the three stations operated by the U.S. McMurdo Station, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, and Palmer Station – as well as numerous seasonal field camps and two marine research vessels operated year-round. Clinical experts at UTMB Health are always available via video teleconference, telephone, or radio to assist in challenging clinical management issues. Our Telemedicine technology was used to spin-off the company NuPhysicia which is a health care provider for oil rigs in the South China Sea, the Persian Gulf, Atlantic, and the Caribbean.

UTMB also provides healthcare to about 80 percent of Texas prisoners. UTMB has been providing telemedicine in Texas Prisons since 1994.

The Virtual Health Network will build on the system’s existing capabilities, providing the infrastructure to connect all of UT’s health institutions and medical schools under one statewide telemedicine network. The Virtual Health Network initially was established in 2016, when the UT System Board of Regents approved $10.8 million to improve access to underserved areas of Texas, enhance patient care and increase coordination and collaboration among experts systemwide. These funds are used to provide telemedicine technology interoperability between multiple sites.

UTMB serves as the major site for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO)- accredited Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) Correctional Managed Care (CMC) Hospital. The TDCJ serves as a referral site for 13 inpatient infirmaries and 83 ambulatory clinics, responsible for 80% of the TDCJ population (188K admission annually), one of the largest prison populations in the Western world. The UTMB TDCJ Hospital remains the first and only hospital specializing in offender care on the campus of a major medical center and teaching institution. The challenges with physician access in the CMC population have driven the implementation of extensive telemedicine programs that now serve as a model for other states and correctional organizations.

The Discovery and Innovation through Visual Analytics Laboratory (DIVA Lab) at UTMB is designed to enable the analysis and comprehension of large and complex multi-omics datasets by multidisciplinary translational teams. The DIVA Lab has two goals: (1) Discovery of complex patterns in big biomedical data through visual analytics. This includes identifying heterogeneity in diseases, and the underlying biological mechanisms; and (2) Innovation of new visual analytical methods for data analysis (targeted to researchers), and for decision-support (targeted to clinicians).

The DIVA lab is led by Dr. Suresh Bhavnani and consists of 960 square feet on the 6th floor of Research Building 6. The lab includes (1) the Discovery Room equipped for visualization, collaboration, and teaching, (2) the Evaluation Room for testing systems and methods, and (3) Offices for the PI, students, and programmers.

Equipment: The laboratory provides hardware and software dedicated to visualization and parallel processing of big molecular and clinical data. Computer displays for 2D, 3D, and 3D stereo visualizations are powered by a high-end graphics workstation consisting of (1) a Dell OptiPlex 990 running Windows, with an Intel® Core™ i7 2600, (2) an integrated video card (Intel® HD Graphics 2000 (1DP & 1 VGA)), (3) a discrete video card (NVIDIA Quadro K600), (4) two terabytes of local disc storage and additional remote storage, (5) Dell backup and recovery, and (6) a 3D stereo projector. The “big data” analysis is powered by a multi-core, parallel processing server consisting of (1) a Dell PowerEdge T620 server with Dual Intel Xeon E-2697 12-core processors, (2) 64 GiBs of RAM, (3) ATI FirePro V7800 Professional Video Card, and (4) two terabytes of local disk storage. The students and faculty have personal laptops that can seamlessly connect to the above systems for display and analysis. To enable distance collaboration and learning, the lab contains video conferencing and flexible interior furniture and lighting arrangements that enable the configuration of the visual analytical hardware and software for different sizes of research teams and learners.

The above facilities and equipment have been used for applications including biomarker discovery, patient stratification, stratified predictive modeling, and precision medicine, resulting in publications in leading informatics journals, conferences, and five distinguished paper awards. These projects were successful because the facilities provide display technologies at different scales from desktop to wall-size, enabling many representations of the data to be viewed simultaneously such as networks generated from multi-omics data, and molecular interaction networks generated from Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA). Such display technologies enabled multidisciplinary teams to make rapid discoveries from complex associations in large and complex data. The facility also includes distance collaboration technologies, enabling audio and video teleconferencing across CTSA hubs. The lab supports a range of software applications such as Spotfire and Tableau, which can be used remotely by collaborators. Furthermore, the equipment and flexibility of the lab have been used to teach the course Introduction to Big Data Visual Analytics, resulting in a teaching award.

The DIVA Lab is fully equipped for big data visual analytical research and education and provides the support of two research associates to assist researchers across CTSA hubs in analyzing large and complex datasets.

Global Health at UTMB trains health professionals to work with vulnerable populations at home and abroad. We provide cutting-edge interprofessional learning opportunities working with long-term partners to provide safe, well-supervised, and meaningful international electives for our learners. CGCH works locally in Galveston County and East Texas as well as abroad in the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Peru, and Uganda. The collaborative projects our trainees participate in add significant value to our partners, which maintains UTMB’s status as an innovator in global health education.

The UTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) was first established in 1969 and awards M.S. and/or Ph.D. degrees in nine different graduate programs. The school also offers a dual MD/PhD degree in collaboration with the School of Medicine. The GSBS is located in William C. Levin Hall adjacent to the famous Moody Medical Library and the Health Education Center (HEC) in the center of the UTMB main campus. The faculty work in various departments and disciplines across the institution, yet keep a close-knit, collaborative spirit and culture and have a strong sense of dedication to training the next generation of biomedical scientists. In the fall of 2021, the GSBS had 255 faculty instructing a diverse student body (16% Hispanic, 13% African American, 14% Asian, 6% international, 57% female) of 341 students. Several graduate programs within the GSBS follow the Basic Biomedical Science Curriculum (BBSC). This rigorous curriculum is structured such that students in their first year of study gain a strong foundation in various biomedical concepts before choosing a mentor and lab for their dissertation work. The BBSC exposes trainees to fundamental classes in Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Biostatistics, and Responsible Conduct in Biomedical Research. The trainees undertake these didactic courses while also going through a series of 8-week laboratory rotations. At the end of their first year, students choose a lab within their specific graduate program and take more focused coursework in their desired area of research. The list of GSBS programs following the BBSC are 1) Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology, 2) Experiment Pathology, 3) Microbiology and Immunology, 4) Neuroscience, and 5) Pharmacology and Toxicology. Several programs within the GSBS do not follow the BBSC and have a different path of instruction. While all programs at GSBS are multidisciplinary in nature, these non-BBSC programs involve specific training in a combination of both clinical and basic science research. These unique programs include the 1) Human Pathophysiology and Translation Medicine (HPTM) program, 2) Clinical Science program, 3) Graduate Nursing program, 4) Master of Medical Science program, and the 5) MD/PhD program.

The Health Education Center at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) consists of 160,000 gross square feet of resilient and advanced technology education space. The center promotes interprofessional education in all UTMB schools which include Medicine, Nursing, Health Professions, and Graduate Biomedical Sciences along with professional education for residents, nurses, physicians, and staff. The facility features a centralized Simulation Center featuring a standardized patient suite and flexible simulation labs to be used by the UTMB health professions community.

The Education Center provides a place for UTMB to further its institutional vision, mission, and goals by providing a location with the resources for leading the future of health education. With the integration of simulation activities, the faculty and students benefit from centralized interdisciplinary collaborative learning. The  large flexible classrooms further the institutional goal of expanding the opportunities for inter-professional group learning as well as enable new pedagogies of learning studios that are currently not possible in existing classrooms. The Education Center aligns with the institution’s Mission, Vision, and Goals and will directly help in advancing five of the pillars that serve as the focus for integrated planning and operations at the University of Texas Medical Branch: People, Quality, Education, Strategic Management and Growth, and Community.

Funded by the National Institute on Aging (AG T3200270), the Health of Older Minorities Pre and Postdoctoral Training program provides training for predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers interested in studying the health of older minorities, particularly older Hispanics. Pre and postdoctoral fellows collaborate with Center faculty who have more than $15 million in annual external research funds pertaining to minority health and aging in the areas of health disparities, aging trajectories, medical outcomes, health service utilization, social epidemiology, rehabilitation, psychosocial stress, and health promotion. Mentoring teams provide expert guidance in an environment proven to maximize progress toward independent researcher status. Funded investigators include sociologists, economists, demographers, physicians, epidemiologists, and statisticians.

The UTMB Hispanic Center of Excellence (HCOE), housed in the School of Medicine Office of Student Affairs and Admissions, was initially funded by the NIH from 1992-2005 and 2010-2015. UTMB continues to support the HCOE and provides subsistence funding for activities beyond the scope of medical school education/training. The mission of the HCOE is to promote excellence in healthcare for the people of Texas. The Center recruits and mentors a diverse population from across Texas into medical school and helps to provide the resources and support to graduate linguistically appropriate, culturally competent, bilingual physicians to serve the healthcare needs of all Texans better. Goals are to 1) Recruit and mentor students into medical school that reflect the population of Texas; 2) Develop, educate, and foster the linguistic and cultural growth of medical students (as it pertains to the practice of medicine) to serve the needs of all Texans better; 3) Support and mentor a diverse (medical/healthcare) faculty, particularly junior faculty, in order to provide our students with mentors that mirror the student population and the population of Texas; and 4) Disseminate, educate, and support Hispanic health news, education, and research.

The Institute for Human Infections and Immunity (IHII) was established in 2004 as an umbrella organization for UTMB’s infectious disease centers and programs and high containment facilities, including the Galveston National Laboratory, to promote multidisciplinary approaches to the prevention, control, and  treatment  of infectious diseases. Under its current Director, Dr. Scott Weaver, the Institute integrates UTMB research strengths in emerging infections with well-funded research programs in molecular virology, bacteriology, vector biology, immunology, biocontainment practices, and vaccine development. The IHII coordinates research, education, and clinical programs of more than 130 faculty-scientists focusing on infectious diseases and immunity, promotes new interdisciplinary programs, and manages the Galveston National Laboratory. It publishes a quarterly newsletter on behalf of the Biodefense, Vaccine and Tropical Disease centers, distributes weekly lists of infectious disease-related seminars and other events, and maintains 13 large monitors in 4 buildings where infectious disease research is conducted to inform the infectious disease community of events, high impact papers, awards and major grants to members. Through pilot grants and seed funds to faculty and trainees, the IHII also promotes research in strategic areas designed to attract major funding and to exploit biodefense opportunities unique to UTMB.

Download a document with more details about facilities and resources available through IHII.

The Institute for Translational Sciences (ITS) The Institute for Translational Sciences (ITS), established in 2007, is the academic home for translational research at UTMB. Translational research is the application and refinement of a discovery or practice intervention into clinical practice to improve the health of our community. We develop, evaluate, and disseminate best practices for novel training and leadership programs in translational science. The ITS aims to train a new generation of clinical and translational researchers, engage stakeholders and communities in research, address barriers to clinical and translational research, and advance translational research through team-based approaches.

The ITS occupies the 6th floor of the centrally located Research Building 6, 14,781 sq. ft. of space, designated as the “home” for clinical and translational research for the UTMB campus. This space includes an administrative suite and dedicated areas for communications, education, ethics, informatics, CRC, and the Office of Clinical Research. The CTSA PI, also Vice President for Research, Chief Research Officer, and Vice Dean for Clinical Research, and the Associate Vice President for Research Administration have offices in the ITS space. The ITS has four dedicated conference rooms, two unassigned offices and four workstations available for visitor use, a workroom, copier room (network printer, copier, fax, mailroom), and the Discovery and Innovation through Visual Analytics (DIVA) Lab with three offices and a visualization lab. The DIVA Lab contains hardware and software dedicated to visualization and parallel processing of “big” molecular and clinical data. To enable distance collaboration and learning, the lab is equipped for video conferencing.

The Institutional Ethics Program (IEP) is a joint commitment of the UTMB Health System and the Institute for the Medical Humanities that recognizes that uncertainty, confusion, and tension regarding different individual, professional, social and institutional values often produce complex ethical issues and questions. The Program comprises the Clinical Ethics Consultation Service, the Integrated Ethics Program, Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC), and numerous educational and academic endeavors.

The Program was launched informally in the late 1970s by Dr. William J. Winslade after receiving a growing number of ethically complex telephone inquiries from healthcare providers who were seeking answers to questions they felt were outside of their expertise. In 1985 UTMB’s first Ethics Service was operational, and it was clear that this resource was needed but also that it needed to be more comprehensive.

The Integrated Ethics Program includes clinical and research ethicist inpatient rounds and interdisciplinary meetings. The program offers a more proactive service by anticipating potential dilemmas or deliberating nascent issues; provides opportunities to engage in educational, ethical issue discourse; instills the ethicist with an understanding of the environment, context, and culture by which each team navigates; and provides another agile mechanism of formal ethics consultation requests.

Research ethicists also serve on the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC), an officially constituted committee, reporting to the Office of the President, under the leadership of the Director of the Ethics Program. The IEC works in conjunction with the Ethics Program to provide comprehensive, integrated ethics support for the institution.

The Integrated Imaging Core with significant funding from the NIH, NSF, DOD, NASA and industry and directed by Masoud Motamedi, PhD, provides an effective organization for research and training. In a strong multi-disciplinary environment, the core combines engineering, imaging and computer sciences with molecular and cellular biology and clinical sciences in order to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches and to foster research in the rapidly growing discipline of biomedical engineering.

To accomplish its mission, the Integrated Imaging Core has developed state-of-the-art core facilities that foster a broad range of multidisciplinary research with emphasis in biomedical imaging, laser and spectroscopy, optical sensing and monitoring, neuroengineering and sensing, biomedical applications of nanotechnology, confocal and multi-photon imaging, biomechanics, an artificial lung program, and molecular cytometry.The staff has significant capability and research experience in optical imaging, high resolution microscopy, molecular engineering and biosensors, spectroscopic analysis, optical monitoring and sensing, nanotechnology and their biomedical applications. The center has major laboratories for advanced optical imaging including confocal, multi-photons, second harmonic generation microscopy, optical coherence tomography, optoacoustic and high throughput imaging, as well as a wide range of spectroscopic capabilities. 

Within the Department of Pharmacy, the Investigational Drug Service assists in the execution of the scientific, clinical and administrative functions of drug research, assures drug studies are conducted in a safe, effective and efficient manner compliant with all federal, state and JCAHO regulations concerning investigational drugs. The service consists of an IDS Coordinator, a part-time Pharmacist, and a Pharmacy Technologist. The service is covered by a member of the IDS 24 hours a day. The IDS is currently involved with the drug management of approximately 140 drug studies at UTMB. The service interacts closely with UTMB physicians, nurses, study coordinators, pharmacists, and various drug sponsors involved with clinical drug trials.

The ITS-Clinical Research Center is an 8,213 sq. ft. space strategically placed between the recently built Jennie Sealy Hospital and John Sealy Hospital. UTMB ITS-CRC is a 24-hour multi-service inpatient and outpatient research facility with three inpatient rooms for multidisciplinary research, including metabolic studies involving monitored bedrest. There are four outpatient rooms for routine visits, one of which can accommodate prolonged outpatient studies, and a phlebotomy room that can also be used for glucose tolerance tests and pharmacokinetic studies. There is a procedure room equipped as an OR suite and an exercise room with a bed for muscle biopsies after exercise. There is an extensive array of equipment to measure body composition (e.g., iDEXA, and BODPOD) or physiological function (e.g., two metabolic control units for VO2 determination and a Biodex unit).

The ITS-CRC Core Laboratory primarily provides technical support to Principal Investigators.  In addition to the standard laboratory equipment, the Core Laboratory is also equipped with a BioRad multiplex platform, three glucose/L-lactate analyzers and a spectrophotometer.  Among the services extended to Principal Investigators are sample de-identification, sample processing, cytokine assays, DNA extractions, freezer storage, DXA scans, and shipping of biological materials as specified by regulation.  The Core Laboratory currently houses four -80°C freezers, one -20°C freezer, and one 4°C refrigerator.  All freezers are equipped with AccSense, a 24-hour temperature monitoring service that reports any deviations in temperatures.  The Core Laboratory, in conjunction with ITS-IS, has implemented the use of Open Specimen as a freezer inventory system.

 There is one conference room, four staff offices, and an office to accommodate research coordinators and teams. A Core Lab is available for specimen processing and shipping and for performing special assays (e.g., multiplex immunoassays). The Core Lab houses four (4) 80-degree freezers and one -20 freezer for our biorepository.

Studies conducted in the ITS-CRC are facilitated by a team of highly motivated, trained and experienced research nurses.  The unit consists of five research nurses.  We have three nurses certified as clinical research professionals through the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SoCRA) and all nurses certified in Moderate Sedation and ACLS.

The Clinical Research Center’s bionutrition unit includes a metabolic kitchen that is staffed from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm, 7 days per week. The unit offers expertise and resources to study various diets and specific nutrients in a unique, controlled environment.

The staff comprises a research dietitian, a dietary research supervisor and research diet technicians. The dietary staff is experienced in preparing fixed-composition diets. The research dietitian designs diets and menus to meet specifications of various research protocols. The research staff is also trained in the use of comprehensive nutritional analysis software to plan precise diets and analyze the nutrient intake of subjects.

All diets, menus and food records are analyzed utilizing the Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR), the premier software application for dietary analysis of 24-hour dietary recalls and 3-day food intake records. It provides detailed information on numerous nutrient values and ratios, including calories, macronutrients, trace minerals, individual amino acids and fatty acid content of foods.

Students enrolled in the Medical Student in Aging Research (MSTAR) program benefit from an enriching experience in aging-related research and geriatrics with the mentorship of top experts in the field. Participation in the program has led many physicians-in-training to pursue academic careers in aging, ranging from basic science to clinical and health sciences research. The long term goal of the program is to increase the number of established physician-investigators and clinicians who pursue research in high priority areas related to aging.

The Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases promotes human health through innovative basic and translational research aimed at promoting the advancement of our understanding of the molecular, cellular and system mechanisms driving neurodegenerative disorders with the long-term goal of developing innovative, effective therapies. Research of the primary faculty of the Mitchell Center covers a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders, with the relative majority of effort focusing on Alzheimer’s Disease and related tauopathies (such as PSP, FTLD and PART), but also including Parkinson’s Disease and related synucleopathies (such as DLB), Huntington Disease, ALS, autism and epilepsy. Major research focus is on molecular and cellular mechanisms that can be common drivers of these diverse disorders such as protein misfolding, synaptic dysfunction, deficits in synaptic development, altered neurogenesis, excitatory/inhibitory imbalance, oxidative stress, DNA damage and repair, insulin resistance and resilience. Several innovative therapeutic approaches are also developed and evaluated at the Mitchell center, including immunotherapy for tau oligomers and other amyloid oligomers, near infrared light (NIR), calcineurin inhibitors, PLD1 inhibitors and insulin sensitizers, among others. Testimony of the success of the research at the Mitchell Center is the extensive extramural research support awarded to Center core faculty that has exceeded $22 million for the period 2014-2020 (including NIH and national foundation grants) with more than 165 papers published in peer-reviewed journals.  

The Galveston National Laboratory (GNL) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded biocontainment facility that was dedicated on the UTMB campus in November 2008. The laboratory serves as a national resource in support of NIH’s biodefense and emerging infectious diseases research agenda and stands ready to assist local, state, and national public health efforts in the event of a public health emergency. The GNL also serves as a national and international product development resource for infectious disease researchers and commercial partners. The GNL provides BSL-4, BSL-3 and BSL-2 laboratories designed for the safe conduct of research in emerging infectious diseases to develop vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics against them. Using these unique and extensive resources, the GNL’s renowned scientists work collaboratively, both locally and internationally, tackling some of the world’s most pressing health concerns. With strengths in aerobiology, assay development, experimental pathology, imaging, insectary services, preclinical studies and regulated studies (Good Laboratory Practice [GLP]), the GNL aims to advance local discoveries on the diagnostic tests, therapeutics, and vaccines for the infectious diseases impacting global health like tuberculosis, West Nile virus, Ebola, Marburg, plague, alphaviral encephalitis, hepatitis, influenza, and a host of others including diseases caused by multi-drug resistant pathogens, and on microbiome.

Graduate students, medical students and visiting scientists from around the world benefit from training and working in the facility. More than 120 UTMB faculty and principal investigators conduct research with their teams in the GNL.

The GNL Administration Core is responsible for leading in an environment that embraces an institutional culture of safety and security.  Ensuring the safety of staff, students and the community is of utmost concern. One of the keys to the success of the organization is the use of a multi-disciplinary, team-based management system that involves personnel from every area of the organization.

This culture of safety maintains the focus on providing a laboratory that is functioning properly, with adequately trained personnel to reduce risks and to allow students and faculty to be as successful as possible.

Since opening in 2008, there has never been a major laboratory incident resulting in the transmission of a disease due to research or animal care, and there has never been a serious physical injury as a result of equipment or structural malfunction.

UTMB has two operational isolation units for patients infected with high consequence pathogens and is a referral site for patients in DHHS Region VI. The National Ebola Training and Education Center (NETC) participates in the NETEC consortium and is regularly inspected by them. Also, NETEC plans to provide training for clinical nursing care in the units.

The Office of Biostatistics (OBIOS) provides statistical support services to all UTMB faculty, staff and students. The areas of expertise include design support, database design, management, and data analysis. Design support services include power calculations, sample size determinations, and identification of appropriate methods to minimize experimental error. Database design services focus on the development of project specific systems for data acquisition, scheduling, and modification. Data management services include the development of data collection techniques/ instruments, data entry screens, and data editing and error checking programs. Data analysis services focus on the application of appropriate methods to allow valid statistical inferences. Also, through collaboration between UTMB researchers and members of the office, OBIOS can provide developmental procedures that will produce improved methods and procedures to collect, manage, analyze, and interpret biomedical data.

OBIOS is the point of contact for the computer package SAS® campus-wide and provides expert and technical support for the SAS® system, a statistical application with extensive data management capabilities. OBIOS maintains Power Analysis Software (PASS 16) - a software calculates sample size and power for various statistics methods, ArcGIS – a mapping and spatial analysis software, and TreeAge – a software to build a graphical decision tree and conduct analyses. OBIOS maintains the Clinformatics DataMart which contains the medical and pharmacy claims for approximately 50 million enrollees for academic training and research purposes. This database offers numerous opportunities for collaboration between faculty and students. In addition, in collaboration with Sealy Center on Aging and Center for Large Data Research and Data Sharing in Rehabilitation, the OBIOS maintains a large set of population-based health datasets, including 5% national Medicare data, 100% Texas Medicare data, 100% Texas Medicaid data, 100% national Medicare data for hospital discharge, assessments from inpatient rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes, and home health care, SEER-Medicare data, and the Texas Cancer registry linked to Medicare data under various CMS and NCI data user agreements.

Computing: The following hardware and peripheral configurations are currently housed at OBIOS offices: a) A Virtual Server with 24 CPUs, 32 GB of RAM, 200GB Operating System Drive and 13 TB of external storage. The operating system is Red Har Enterprise Linux Server release 7.3; b) Three Dell Workstations with total 18 Terabyte storage capacities.

Network Connection and Communication. The Linux server is the central data center for facilitating multiple users running multiple tasks on large data. Dell workstations are the local data servers used to manage sharable databases. The data can be easily transferred between Linux server and Dell workstations though UTMB’s high-speed Local Area Network (LAN). Peripheral devices, such as the cartridge drive and CD-RW drives, are installed into the data servers to enable input and output of large datasets into different storage media. Only permitted users can share the data files in the data servers, usually as read-only information. Shared data files can be managed in the investigator’s office through UTMB’s Local Area Network (LAN). The network at UTMB provides all staff members and researchers with the ability to connect and share files. UTMB’s LAN is supported by mostly Cisco and some Alcatel. The core (campus backbone) and distribution (individual building backbone) portion of the network uses Cisco 6880 and 7000 series Ethernet switches. The core of the LAN is supported by single-mode fiber optic cable and runs at 20Gbs. The distribution cable plant is a combination of fiber and copper also running at 1Gbs.

Security Schema. Shared working data files are stored on the servers that can be accessed only by using passwords designated by the systems manager. The customized analytic files are stored in separate folders for each study. Only assigned personnel can access each folder. The UTMB network has been equipped with a “firewall” to protect against Internet hackers.

UTMB’s Office of Educational Development (OED) supports UTMB’s educational mission by designing and providing faculty development plans to improve teaching and learning; by supporting curriculum development aimed at effective teaching and learning; by providing expertise to support effective learner assessment; by designing and providing curriculum and educational program evaluations to promote continually-improving teaching and learning; by conducting and collaborating on educational research grounded in sound theory and current practice; and by collaborating with faculty colleagues to advance the scholarship of education. The OED offers services and consultation for the appropriate integration of technology into curriculum and instruction at UTMB. The OED can assist with the use of instructional technology such as video (digital storytelling, video production, YouTube), social media (blogging, Google suite, Twitter), audience response systems (Turning Point, Poll Everywhere), and mobile computing and apps (iPads/iPhone and Android devices and apps). In addition to providing instruction, production support, and consultation, the OED provides processes to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of the integration of instructional technology.

The Sealy Center for Molecular Medicine (SCMM) focuses on understanding cell stress response pathways using high-throughput systems-based approaches. The center’s biomarkers program is developing new tools to study and classify human diseases at a molecular level, allowing researchers to predict individual susceptibility to disease and to create better diagnostics for such common ailments as asthma, cancer, diabetes and degenerative diseases. Its scientists are leading investigators in the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Internal Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology, Pediatrics, Neuroscience & Cell Biology. Primary pursuits of the SCMM include the discovery and translation of the basic principles governing the signal transduction and the cellular stress response. In addition, the SCMM focuses on developing technologies for biomarker identification and molecular systems approaches for developing individualized treatments for human diseases.  Work in the center is supported by cores in molecular genomics/microarray facility, high throughput sequencing/single nucleotide polymorphisms, thioaptamer screening facility, and proteomics/biomarker discovery. 

Vaccination has proven to be the most effective global strategy for the prevention of infectious diseases. Vaccinology, the rapidly evolving science of vaccines, holds great promise in making major contributions to the further improvement of human health. UTMB established the Sealy Institute for Vaccine Development (SCVD) to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations in the areas of research, development, policy, and education and has become one of the most comprehensive vaccine centers in the United States. With 76 UTMB faculty members from twelve School of Medicine departments, the institute incorporates the expertise of more than 100 cutting-edge research programs currently at UTMB. The faculty and staff of the SIVS strive to create, perfect and promote the most effective and safest disease prevention strategies. In this endeavor, the institute carries on the proud tradition of medical research and discovery that has been a hallmark of UTMB since its beginning.

In addition to traditional academic vaccine discovery research, the SCVD has been involved in other activities:

The Vaccine Clinical Trials Program was established in 2002 and has undertaken more than 55 clinical trials from phase I through phase 4 involving studies in neonates, children, adults, and senior citizens. The program is subcontractor for both the Baylor College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital NIAID-funded Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs), (b) subcontractor for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) funded Clinical Trials Network, (c) Member of NIH-funded International Maternal, Pediatric, Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) network, and (d) a member of the BARDA funded National Ebola Training and Education Center, Special Pathogens Research Network (NETEC SPRN).

The preclinical program has resulted in the establishment in 2010 of the UTMB Institutional Office of Regulated Nonclinical Studies. It has been a contractor in the NIAID Animal Models for Biodefense and Emerging Diseases (2003-2010), NIAID Animal of Models of Infectious Diseases (2010-2017) and NIAID Preclinical Models of Infectious Diseases (2017-2024) networks.

In 2014, the SCVD was designated the World Health Organization Collaborating Center (WHO CC) for Vaccine Research, Evaluation, and Training on Emerging Infectious Diseases, one of seven WHO CC for vaccines in the world. In 2016, the SCVD in collaboration with Nature Research Journals launched a new vaccines journal entitled npj Vaccines, which is rapidly establishing a reputation for publishing high-quality vaccine papers. It received its first impact factor of 3.142 in June 2018.

Based on the success of the SCVD, UTMB promoted the Center to Institute status with the approval of the University of Texas system. The Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences (SIVS) was inaugurated in January 2018. The institute will continue to provide academic leadership at UTMB for the research, development, and use  of vaccines by further enhancing the international reputation of vaccine sciences at UTMB and creating an environment where scientists can take their ideas from discovery into the development phase as part of our efforts to promote health and well-being.

UTMB is one of 10 institutions selected as educational sites for the Special Pathogens Research Network (SPRN) being developed by NETEC. The UTMB site will work with the SPRN to enable research related to high consequence pathogens by establishing a rapid IRB approval mechanism, developing a master research protocol, and implementing a clinical data capture tool and universal case report form. We will also develop SOPs and training for research in biocontainment which could be integrated with research training offered by the Clinical Research Center. Also, UTMB’s Galveston National Laboratory is under consideration as the site of a biorepository for BSL-3 and -4 pathogens.

Housed within the ITS, the UTMB Special Populations Coordinating Center provides investigators access to a diverse pool of patients that visit UTMB clinics from Galveston/Houston and surrounding areas for a variety of health care needs. The SPCC addresses the “clinical trials participation gap”, which refers to the refers to the significant differences in sex, race and socioeconomic status between clinical trials participants and the US population.  The UTMB SPCC specifically addresses the need to increase participation in clinical trials of expecting mothers and their babies, children, older adults, Hispanic minorities and underserved populations.

Through the Sealy Center on Aging, a large cohort of elderly population is available to investigators interested in studying the phenomenon of aging and geriatric diseases. Other patient populations being studied as part of an MTT include patients with severe asthma, respiratory infections such as otitis media, obesity, women’s health issues, colorectal cancer, hepatocellular cancer, addiction, and parasitic infections.

The UTMB CTSA hub supports active MTTs conducting applied research in special populations (SP) across the lifespan from in utero, pediatric to aging populations using Phase I-III CTs including RCTs, pragmatic CTs and separately, patient-centered outcomes (PCOR) approaches. Our prestigious Claude D. Pepper Older Independence Center in Aging has pioneered nutritional supplementation CTs to prevent sarcopenia of aging and is a recruitment site for a multi-site PCOR/NIA-funded STRIDE study with eight other sites in the CTSA consortium. Our internationally recognized maternal-fetal medicine/pharmacology MTT has resulted in FDA IND approvals for the treatment of pregnancy-associated hypertension. The UTMB CTSA is a site for the NCATS/ Rare Disease Collaborative Network (RDCRN) in the Porphyria Consortium developing the first-in-class drug for increasing sunlight tolerance.

The mission of the Stark Diabetes Center is to advance the health of Texas and to improve the quality of care for Texans, with a specific emphasis on the prevention of diabetes and its complications. Its main objective is to identify the optimal approach to decrease risk for diabetes and its complications in the multiethnic population of Texas and ultimately provide plans to reduce the burden of obesity, diabetes, and its complications. The Stark Diabetes Center provides state-of-the-art clinical care, research, and education around disease conditions and syndromes, including, but not limited to, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and obesity, as well as the metabolic syndrome.

The diabetes education program at the UTMB Stark Diabetes Center has been recognized by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) for Quality Self-Management Education. This recognition is a voluntary process that assures diabetes education programs meet national standards. One of the primary goals of the education recognition program is to ensure high-quality, consistent education for patient self-care, to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and prevent some of the acute and chronic complications of diabetes.

The UTMB Stark Diabetes Center is now the only institutional Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) in the Greater Houston Area – and 1 of only 5 in the State of Texas – that is fully recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As the largest medical complex in the world, the Texas Medical Center (TMC) is an internationally recognized community of healing, learning, and discovery. The TMC in Houston is home to many of the nation’s best hospitals, physicians, researchers, educational institutions, and health care providers. Recognized by U.S. News & World Report’s Annual Survey of American’s Best Hospitals, the member institutions of the Texas Medical Center are known throughout the world for the quality of patient care, teaching, research and prevention of illness and injury. These institutions include 21 renowned hospitals with seven acute care, six pediatric care, and eight specialty care facilities; three public health organizations; two universities; three medical schools; six nursing programs; two pharmacy schools; a dental school; eight academic and research institutions; and 13 support organizations. UTMB is a member of the TMC, and as such has strong ties to the other institutions.

The Texas Resource Center on Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) provides mentorship to scholars with research focused on the health and aging in minority elderly populations with special emphasis on the Hispanic population in the United States and Mexico. The center is based at UTMB Sealy Center on Aging, and is a collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin. It provides an infrastructure that facilitates the development of research on health and aging in minority populations with emphasis on the Hispanic population in the United States as well as in Mexico. Special focus is given to mentoring researchers from underrepresented populations. RCMAR will work with the National Archive for Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), within ICPSR to disseminate research. Read more about the Significance of studying Hispanic populations. Three cores support RCMAR, the Administrative Core, the Analysis Core and the Research Education Component (REC). The Administrative Core oversees and promotes activities. The Analysis Core provides methodological and statistical support to promote the research and career development of minority aging investigators. The REC’s overall aim is to increase the capacity of faculty at UTMB, UT Austin, and elsewhere to conduct rigorous research on minority aging and health disparities in general.

The Eye and Ear Clinical Research Center is dedicated to the improvement of eye and ear health through research. It fosters new ideas and products in solution to the risks to vision and hearing on earth and in extreme environments. Through a multidisciplinary team that integrates expertise in ophthalmology, otolaryngology, molecular biology, biochemistry, pharmacology and bioengineering, the Eye and Ear Clinical Research Center supports investigations in clinical trials, multi-site research consortiums, investigator initiated trials and pre-clinical research.

Located in Houston’s Texas Medical Center, the Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC) is one of the largest inter-institutional cooperatives in the world with a focus on building strong collaborative research groups and interdisciplinary training opportunities for PhD students and postdocs. GCC brings together the strengths of its member institutions to build interdisciplinary collaborative research teams and training programs in biological sciences at their intersection with the computational, chemical, mathematical, and physical sciences. GCC provides a unique, cutting edge collaborative training environment and research infrastructure beyond the capability of any single institution. Its mission is to train the next generation of biomedical scientists and to enable scientists to ask and answer questions that cross scientific disciplines to address the challenging biological issues of our time and, ultimately, to apply the resulting expertise and knowledge to the treatment and prevention of disease. GCC is composed of seven prominent and geographically proximate Houston-Galveston area institutions: UTMB Galveston, Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University, University of Houston, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Institute of Biosciences & Technology at Texas A&M Health Science Center.

The Texas Regional CTSA Consortium (TRCC) is a collaborative research network and training program to advance innovative standards and practices in translational science across Texas for the improvement of human health. The TRCC consists of UT System representation and the four Texas CTSA institutions: UTMB Galveston, UTHSC-Houston/MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHSC-San Antonio, and UT Southwestern (Dallas).

Also included in our collaborative initiatives are UT Tyler (rural), UT Rio Grande Valley (URM), and the newly established UT Dell Medical in Austin. Strategic Goals of the TRCC are to 1) Work with the people of Texas to determine health priorities, foster community involvement, trust and participation in research, and implement best practices that improve health; 2) Encourage, support, conduct, and evaluate clinical and translational research across the state of Texas and nationally; 3) Advance and improve education to enhance the clinical and translational research workforce through statewide and national collaborations; and  4) Actively support the strategic goals of the National CTSA Consortium. The TRCC has established an IRB reciprocity agreement, and there is an MOU signed by 19 UT institutions to participate in a Core Laboratory Network.

The Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics (SCSB) was established in 1995 to provide UTMB with state-of-the-art resources for structural and functional studies of biological macromolecules. It works to unlock the basic relationships between macromolecular sequence, structure and function, and to understand and treat disease. This mission is pursued through a three-fold strategy that involves: conduct basic research in the fields of structural, physical, and quantitative biology; train investigators in molecular biophysics, and structural and computational biology; and partner with complementary research efforts on campus to foster mutual scientific goals and to build translational research programs. The SCSB comprises 22 core and 16 associate members (from 5 departments), and the breadth of research spans all aspects of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, addressing such fundamental issues as molecular recognition, signal transduction, allosteric regulation, protein folding, systems biology, and drug design.

The basic research within SCSB combines thermodynamic, kinetic and structural data about biomolecules and their complexes to understand important biomedical processes. The structural and dynamical basis for molecular recognition, signal transduction, protein folding and allosteric regulation is studied by X-ray crystallographic and scattering, nuclear magnetic resonance, and cryo-electron microscopic techniques, advanced computational tools, and solution biophysics and thermodynamics. To facilitate its research, the center has a research development team which provides research development/proposal development support to faculty within the center and its affiliated departments. The SCSB is an intellectual center providing a collegial environment for scientists pursuing a broad range of research. Structural Biology provides a common ground for our faculty whose diverse research interests provide a great synergistic benefit to research across disciplines. The SCSB provides structure to the science of translational research.

The Sealy Center on Aging focuses on improving the health and well-being of the elderly through interdisciplinary research, education, and community service by integrating the resources and activities relevant to aging at UTMB. The center also implements our research findings in hospitals and clinics, bringing excellence and visibility to our health care system, and improving the health of our seniors. Research supported in part by the Sealy Center on Aging includes the Texas Resource Center on Minority Aging Research, the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization, Comparative Effective Research on Cancer in Texas, Health of Older Minorities Pre and Postdoctoral Training, and the Medical Student in Aging Research Program. Some 25 Senior Fellows and 52 Fellows affiliated with the Center on Aging represent all four schools and three institutes at UTMB. Research strengths of the center’s behavioral scientists and epidemiologists include population-based studies of aging in minority populations and studies of medical care outcomes in the elderly using large databases.  Long term care studies are among the center’s developing areas of strength.

The UT System implemented the UT Research Cyberinfrastructure initiative to provide new capabilities that advance current and future research efforts across all UT institutions. By providing a combination of advanced computational systems, a large data storage opportunity, and high bandwidth data access between the institutions, UTRC enables researchers within all 14 UT System institutions to collaborate and compete at the forefront of science and discovery. UTRC incorporates integrated operations (central and distributed, connected at high bandwidth) and works with researchers to develop applications, manage and analyze data, and integrate with the decentralized resources. Through the UTRC Project, the UT System has worked to facilitate, stimulate, and support leadership in computational science research across Texas, as well as attract additional funding and the best faculty and students to UT institutions.

The UTRC has been setup to accommodate the many and varied biomedical research programs of the six UT health institutions, as well as the diverse science and engineering research programs at the eight UT academic universities. Software, usage policies, system configurations, training, and user support will enable the computational biomedical programs to take maximum advantage of Lonestar 5, Corral, and UT SysNet.

UTMB Discover is a central repository for clinical, operational, research, academic and financial data built on a modern platform that enables fast and meaningful data analysis. The UTMB Discover UT-HIP and i2b2 platforms are housed at the UTMB Clear Lake Center. This space includes one main office and 20 cubicles for staff programmers. Along with desktop and laptop systems, our EDWs are cloud-based systems. The UT- EDWProd system is a server with 128Gb of ram and 10TB of storage with 8 CPUs. Our production database and web servers are a 4 CPU 16GB RAM and 1.5TB of storage system. We use multiple staging database servers with 2 to 4 servers, and between 100GB to 4.1TB of storage.

UTMB (IHII) is the lead institution for the Western Gulf Center of Excellence for Vector- Borne Diseases. The center’s mission is to enhance the capacity to anticipate, prevent, and control vector-borne diseases (VBD). The team is comprised of recognized experts in vector- borne diseases, vector biology and control, epidemiology, and ecology, and is boosted by strong partnerships with state and local public health organizations.

The center is making significant inroads in solving these critical public health problems through an innovative combination of Center activities designed to 1) improve the prediction of VBD emergence through enhanced modeling informed by more accurate, efficient, and reliable surveillance; 2) enhance the capabilities and tools of local- and state-level public health agencies through training and the implementation of improved surveillance and control methodologies; and 3) educate a new generation of public health-oriented vector biologists with broad expertise from basic science to applied entomology to span the academic and government scientific communities and drive innovation for decades to come. Their approach will develop new and long-lasting partnerships with academia and public health teams in the region so that, collectively, they can make significant strides in the control of VBD.

The goals are to 1) conduct applied research to develop and validate innovative and effective VBD prediction, prevention, and control needed to respond to current and future disease threats; 2) train the next generation of public health entomologists capable of rapidly detecting and responding to VBD outbreaks on the Gulf Coast and other regions of the US; and 3) strengthen effective collaborations among the consortium of academic scientists and public health organizations at the federal, state, and local levels to optimize VBD surveillance, prevention, and response.

The World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization (WHO/ PAHO) Collaborating Center fosters research to improve the health of Hispanic older populations by establishing collaborations with institutions in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC). The center is also committed to training scholars with a cross-cultural, multidisciplinary perspective. It plays an essential role in research and clinical training in public health, geriatrics, and gerontology. Center Members are leaders in providing technical expertise to PAHO member countries through population data, proven best-practice tools, and research collaborations. Currently, there are 9 WHO Collaborating Centers that focus on research and training in aging/geriatrics. UTMB’s center is unique in that it focuses on Latin American, and population-based research.

The World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses (WRCEVA) is a large, diverse collection of many different emerging viruses and viral reagents. Now at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), the WRCEVA was originally founded as part of an effort by the Rockefeller Foundation in the early 20th century to understand viral ecology, epidemiology, and pathogenesis. It continues to expand and adopt new technologies such as deep sequencing, cryo-electron microscopy, and improved antigenic characterization to facilitate our core missions:

Maintenance and distribution of emerging viruses, arboviruses, and associated reagents
The WRCEVA is home to a collection of over >8,000 virus strains, encompassing 21 viral families. These viruses, along with associated antigens and antibodies, represent a critical resource that the WRCEVA distributes to the research and surveillance community free of charge to facilitate the response to new and continuing outbreaks.

The WRCEVA works with clinical and field samples to isolate, identify, and characterize new viral strains. The WRCEVA also gladly accepts deposits of new or unique virus strains from other researchers to facilitate their distribution to the global research and surveillance community.

Training scientists in the identification and characterization of emerging viruses and arboviruses to enhance research efforts in the U.S. and abroad and to foster collaborations, the WRCEVA provides basic training in the identification and characterization of emerging viruses is provided to qualified scientists.